Target Practice
by The Forgotten Nobody
Summary: Yondu teaches Peter to shoot. [SPOILERS FOR VOL 2]


"If you're gonna be of any use to us boy, you gotta learn how to shoot. Can't have ya relying on that puny knife of yours."

Peter frowned. His pocket knife was one of the few belongings he still had from Earth. Sure it _was_ kinda small, but it was his, a link to his previous life. Though, maybe if he learnt to shoot the other Ravagers wouldn't pick on him so much…

Using the scratches he'd carved into the walls with said knife, Peter determined it had been around 4 months since he'd been abducted. 4 months since his whole life had been turned upside down, since he'd learnt that aliens really _did_ exist and that from then on he'd be living on a real life space ship. And yeah, while that in itself was super cool and incredible and helped distract from the overwhelming grief of losing his mom, there was still the matter of his kidnappers, the Ravagers. Honestly, Peter still didn't know what to make of them. When he'd first been taken, they'd been the monsters of his nightmares, scary, loud and threatening to eat him. Now, months later, they still threatened to eat him but they also…took care of him, in their own strange way. Sure they picked on him, used him for target practice, threatened him but they also fed him, clothed him and gave him a place to sleep. Kraglin had even patted him on the back when he'd found Peter crying after a nightmare of his mom.

Yondu said they kept him because his skinny frame made him a good thief, meant he could sneak through cracks and vents, but Peter wasn't sure he had the makings of a burglar. A few weeks ago when he'd been sent on his first mission with Kraglin and a couple others, he'd tripped an alarm and it was only thanks to Regnore that he'd survived. When Peter had heard the alarm go, heard the footsteps pounding towards him, he'd frozen; convinced he was going to die.

He hadn't and so here he was, being taught how to shoot.

"Now, this here's the gun, sure you're familiar with them. You're gonna watch what I do carefully because it'll be your turn next."

In one smooth motion, Yondu lifted the gun, aimed it at the pile of batteries a few metres away and fired. Even after being surrounded by constant banging and crashing, the sudden noise made Peter flinch. The spark hit the batteries and they exploded, leaving behind a small fire. A faint smirk on his lips, Yondu turned back to Peter, holding out the gun.

"You see this here? It's the safety. I'm gonna put it on so when I give it to you, you don't go blowing your own brains out. When you've got the barrel pointed away from you, you can press it to turn it off."

Yondu shook the gun in Peter's direction and the boy tentatively took it. He'd never held a gun before, let alone an alien one, and was nervous. He'd seen the damage they could do. Just last week, Evra had come back with a chunk of her arm missing because someone had shot her. Even though he knew he needed to know how to use one if he was gonna be a Ravanger, he almost just wanted to give it back.

Fear of being eaten, however, was a pretty good motivator.

"Okay, now you're gonna point it at one of the targets. Why not that old speaker over there." Peter held up the gun aimed it in the direction Yondu was pointing in, over the rest of the make-shift targets Yondu had set up.

"You can turn the safety off now boy. Just don't go getting any funny ideas." Yondu whistled and his deadly arrow flew to the side of Peter's head, ready to strike him if he tried to attack. Not that Peter would. He didn't even know what planet they were on, let alone how he'd survive on it.

Sad as it was, the Ravagers were his best option by far.

"Like this?" Peter followed what he'd seen Yondu do and heard the click as the safety turned off. At the thought that he could now fire it, he couldn't quite hold back the tremor that ran through him.

"Good. So, you feel the button your fingers are over? Press that and you'll fire. Careful of the recoil. Scrawny kid like you might fall on your ass."

Planting his feet as firmly as he could in the ground so as not to let that happen (Wyta would probably taunt him for weeks if she heard he had), Peter focused on keeping his aim steady at the piece of scrap. Taking a deep breath, he fired and though he didn't fall to the ground, the recoil sent him stumbling back into Yondu. The alien knocked him back upright and Peter eagerly checked to see if he'd hit the speaker.

He hadn't. Smoke billowed from a tree stood behind it. Despite his initial reluctance, Peter was disappointed and wanted to try again. Though, he did wonder how mad Yondu would be…

"Not bad for a first attempt," said Yondu, surprising him. "Try again. This time, don't let the force surprise ya. You gotta stay strong, keep those skinny arms of yours fixed when you face that target."

Determined to do better, Peter took aim again, nearly jumping out of his skin when Yondu's hands came to correct him, aligning him further to the left. That time, when Peter shot, it hit the rock the speaker was propped on. The next attempt, he caught the edge of it. The time after, he hit it dead on, sending it flying in a flash of sparks and Peter couldn't hold back a whoop of joy.

Peter took aim again, nearly jumping out of his skin when Yondu's hands came to correct him, aligning him further to the left. That time, when Peter fired, it hit the rock the speaker was propped on. The next attempt, he caught the edge of it. The time after, he hit it dead on and Peter couldn't hold back a whoop of joy.

"I did it! Look Yondu, I hit it!"

Forgetting where he was and who he was with, Peter turned to give Yondu a massive grin. He was about to hug him when the neutral expression on the blue alien's face brought Peter crashing back to reality. The smile fell from Peter's lips and he fought to keep his back straight as Yondu regarded him. He didn't know what he'd done wrong but he'd learnt that no matter what happened you had to be tough, you couldn't show any weakness, even though he'd thought he'd actually done something _right_ for once…

Enough time passed that sweat beaded on Peter's forehead but then, slowly, a smile began to spread on Yondu's face. Peter couldn't believe it. Sure, he'd seen Yondu smile before; when he won a betting game, when they snatched a good piece of bounty, when Piezi got so drunk he knocked himself unconscious head-butting Rett…but never had he seen a smile like this one. This smile…it was like Yondu was _proud_ of him. Proud of puny human Peter.

"We'll make a proper Ravager of you yet boy. Just you wait."

And it might have been stupid but Peter couldn't help but feel a burst of warmth at the praise. He dared to give Yondu a small smile and was rewarded with a solid pat on the back. It almost sent Peter flying into the dirt but he found he didn't care. As the afternoon carried on, with Peter getting better and better and receiving more of those _smiles,_ he thought that maybe, just maybe Yondu wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

 _Nah,_ Peter thought, fiddling with the first gun he'd ever fired, found with Yondu's remaining possessions, _he hadn't been so bad at all._

* * *

 _So I maybe should have spent more time on this but I had to get it out._ _I saw Vol. 2 today and omg it was amazing._ _And that 1 second of flashback…I had to write it._ _I hope you enjoyed it!_


End file.
